Merton
Masculine · “settlement by the lake”
Merton is the settlement by the lake, and it is a real place twice over — a London borough and the Oxford college founded from it in 1264.
How old is the name Merton?
Merton was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Merton alive today was born around 1925, making them about 100 years old. About 700 people named Merton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Merton most popular?
Merton peaked in 1880, reaching #325 nationally. See the whole 1880 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mere tun to Merton
The story of Merton
Walter de Merton founded Merton College at Oxford in 1264 on the model of his own priory, and it is among the oldest colleges in England. The place name became a surname and then, in nineteenth-century America, a given name, alongside Milton, Morton and Marlon. Merton peaked in American records around 1918.
Meaning
settlement by the lake
From the Old English mere, 'lake' or 'pool', and tun, 'settlement' or 'enclosure'. Both elements are among the commonest in English place names and the compound is transparent. Merton in Surrey, now part of London, is the original.
How the name formed
- mere tun
- Merton
Related forms: Mertin · Morton
Pronouncing Merton
MUR-tun
Two syllables, stress on the first. Merton and Mertin are said identically.
Nicknames for Merton
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1920150 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #325reached in 1880
- Change vs 1988
- −37.5%5 in 1995, from 8
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Merton in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mertin in English — spelling variant
- Morton in English — related form
Mertons among us
people named Merton are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Merton sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and belongs to a very large family of English place names.
- One of the oldest Oxford colleges carries the name.
- Two firm syllables that carry well against any surname.
- Morton and Milton are both close enough to cause confusion.
- It reads as a surname before it reads as a given name.
- It is strongly period-coded to the early twentieth century.
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Merton
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Mertons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Merton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Merton in 2025?
- Merton is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Merton with classmates?
- Merton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Merton? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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